SEALS = FOCAS

Since my e-mail earlier this week, hundreds of young seals have been clubbed or shot to death on the ice floes off Canada's East Coast, each one a victim of that government's increasingly desperate efforts to keep the failing seal industry afloat.

Please help us drive the final nail in the coffin of the dying seal industry—and support our urgent work for all animals—by making a donation online right now.

As deeply upsetting as the news of the deaths of so many seals is, perhaps even more infuriating is that the slaughter is still happening at all. The U.S. and the E.U. have both banned the import of seal products, and in December, Russia became one of the latest nations to do so following thousands of letters from PETA supporters just like you.

Despite the fact that there's virtually no market left in which to sell the young seals' skins, the Canadian government continues to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to try to prop up this collapsing industry, even going so far as to consider stockpiling these bloody pelts in the hope that someone somewhere in the world will eventually want to buy them.

With no real market to sell the skins, increasingly vocal questions from Canadian media and government officials about why the slaughter continues, and a rapidly growing outcry against the massacre from both Canadian citizens and compassionate people all over the world, it's clear that young seals—some of whom are skinned while they are still alive—may soon be spared the agony of a painful death.

Yet the Canadian government still refuses to acknowledge what so many people like you and me know in our hearts: that this bloody stain on Canada's global reputation must end now.

Through your generous support today, you'll significantly strengthen our work for animals and help us end this massacre.

PETA, our international affiliates, and our supporters have been instrumental in establishing the ban on importing sealskin products into the E.U. and Russia. Even though young seals are being killed in Canadian waters right now, we're more hopeful than ever that we can prevent this tragedy from happening again.

Someday soon, Canada will look back on its annual seal slaughter with shame. But until that day comes, it is up to caring people like you and me to come to the defense of these gentle animals. Thank you for everything that you do to help prevent the suffering of seals and all animals.

Kind regards,

Ingrid E. NewkirkPresident

P.S. Your gift right now will help strengthen our campaign to end animal suffering and show the Canadian government how much support there is for ending the bloody seal slaughter. Please help us stop the massacre by making a donation to help all animals today.

More than 2,300 young seals have been killed since this year's slaughter began, and in a few short days, the massacre will move into "the Front"—the area off Newfoundland where the deadliest part of this tragedy will begin. It's there that Canadian sealers will beat, shoot, and skin as many as 70 percent of all the harp seals to be slaughtered this year.

Even as the area of this year's massacre expands, we believe that the prospect that there will be another bloody seal slaughter next year is quickly shrinking.

Despite having no market now that Russia has joined the U.S. and the E.U. in banning the sale of seal products, the Canadian government continues to waste taxpayer dollars to help sustain the failing seal industry for shoddy political purposes.

Ever-greater numbers of Canadian citizens, media outlets, and politicians are adding their voices to those of the hundreds of thousands worldwide working to stop the carnage, and the Canadian government is quickly running out of excuses to let the killing of young seals continue.

PETA has fought hard against the seal slaughter, and we believe that we may be very close to seeing it end. We can't count on it, though! Please take the following two steps right now to help save thousands of innocent animals from the clubs, hooks, knives, and other tools of those who abuse animals:• Speak out for seals. Use the strength of Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks to help bring the end of the seal slaughter even closer.

• Support PETA's work for animals. Your gift today will help us win vital new victories for seals and all animals.PETA is dedicated to making sure that this year's seal slaughter is the last, and by taking these two steps, you can help our efforts to protect seals and all other animals in need.

For the seals whose lives we will save—and for all the ways that you help animals—you have the deepest gratitude of everyone here at PETA.

There won't be as many baby seals killed this year, but the slaughter is still going forward.

We have taken big strides, but it isn't over yet! In just a few weeks, thousands of baby harp seals will be slaughtered in Canada. Crude spiked clubs will crush their still-soft skulls. For some, the skin will be ripped off their bloody bodies while they're still conscious. All to satisfy a greedy, vain industry that we are working hard to send the way of the dinosaurs. The year 2013 must be the last year the Canadian seal slaughter takes place – and with your help, we can save seals' lives. Please donate now and help us stop the senseless slaughter of seals and other innocent animals. More than 170,000 harp seals have been slaughtered on the ice floes off Canada's east coast in recent years. Nearly all of them were less than 3 months old. The seal pups yelp in terror as the sealers' spiked clubs slam into their heads while other seals nearby can only watch and wail. Many infant seals are bludgeoned before they even eat their first solid meal or learn how to swim. After violently attacking these young pups, sealers routinely hook them in the eye, cheek, or mouth – sometimes while they are still conscious – to avoid damaging their pelts before dragging the animals across the ice to skin them. They then leave them to die a slow, painful death. Unless something changes, without more help from animal heroes like you, this horror will occur again. Please donate today so we can ramp up our campaign to stop the slaughter.

This massacre is a terrible price to pay for lifeless fur garments that are paraded on catwalks, displayed in shops and worn as if they were symbols of something other than extreme cruelty. So much suffering just to satisfy the greed of the fur industry and consumers' vanity. But there is hope for the seals, thanks to your help and to PETA's and our international affiliates' campaigns against the seal slaughter. The European Union, United States, Taiwan and Mexico already prohibit the sale of seal products, and Russia – formerly Canada's largest commercial market for seal fur – has banned the importation of any harp-seal products. On behalf of the innocent baby seals, defenceless to this assault, please make a donation to PETA today and help end this bloody massacre forever. Your gift means stronger, bigger campaigns. This is a campaign that we can win – and all signs point to this being a tipping point. Help us do even more to stop the seal slaughter and fight the abuse and neglect of all animals. For seals and all animals who need our help, thank you. Groundbreaking progress has been made in the campaign to protect Canada's seal pups, and together we could make it the last year this tragedy takes place. But to achieve that, we must do more right now to win. Please donate today and save harp seals and other animals from misery like that of the upcoming seal slaughter.

In a few weeks, the cruel annual massacre of baby seals will take place once again in Canada. Thousands of sensitive, defenceless seals will be clubbed to death – and many will be skinned alive.

PETA's work to make sure that this is the last time it ever happens is dependent on the support of generous individual supporters.

Donate today and help build on the progress made already by:

- Defending the European Union's ban on selling seal fur, which Canada is contesting right now

- Campaigning even harder and louder to generate a global outcry unlike anything the world has seen before

- Lobbying world governments to speak out against the senseless practice

You've heard the story for years: Spring arrives, and the ice floes off Canada's eastern coast are littered with the bodies of baby seals – slaughtered in the largest commercial massacre of marine mammals on the planet. But this year it's different, because our campaign to save the seals has been working. I know it's working because as you read this, seals are facing a new threat from a last-ditch effort that could allow this horrendous massacre to continue. The Canadian government is lobbying hard to overturn the European Union's ban on seal-fur imports. It's no wonder: PETA's and our affiliates' campaigns have just about destroyed the global market for seal products. Please donate now and help put the last nail in the Canadian seal industry's coffin and give us the means to save more seals and other animals from exploitation and misery. The European Union has banned the sale of seal products, and the worldwide demand for seal fur is plummeting. As a result of an international campaign, Russia – which had been importing 95 per cent of Canadian seal pelts – will not allow the importation of any harp-seal products! PETA US and Canada's own Pamela Anderson met with Russian officials in New York to counter Canadian efforts to reopen that market, and we believe that it will remain shut.

The Canadian government is also trying to get China to import seal fur, so PETA Asia has organised thousands of people in mainland China and Taiwan to e-mail the Canadian ambassador in those countries. Chinese celebrities are retweeting PETA Asia's action alerts, and popular Chinese TV stars have been enlisted to appear in campaign ads. Canada won't find a solution in China! The fur industry is pulling out all the stops to remove the ban on seal products in Europe. In a crude attempt to bypass public opinion and political will, it's lobbying the World Trade Organization (WTO) and arguing that the ban discriminates against Canadian products. PETA US also arranged for an appeal to the WTO to maintain the bans, which generated international headlines, as did a supporter in a seal costume and activists who gathered outside last month's WTO meeting. If the industry wins, many more seals will die. It is a fight that we must not lose, and this is where you come in. Please join thousands of other PETA supporters who want to stop the suffering of seals and all animals by making an urgently needed donation today. The Canadian government reportedly will be spending millions to try to overturn the EU ban. We need your support today to work together to stop the seal killers' latest efforts.

Hundreds of thousands of seals used to be killed each year in Canada, but as PETA and our international affiliates continue to hammer away at markets, the number has dwindled to a fraction of what it once was. Our tactics work, and that's why the fur industry is running scared. Just a few weeks ago, an early slaughter of hundreds of young grey seals on Canada's Hay Island was cancelled for the second year in a row, and local media noted that "[g]overnments around the world have been closing their borders to seal products." Now, we need to help stop the big harp-seal slaughter. The current challenge before the WTO is just the last gasp of an industry that's trying to hold on to a horrific massacre that the majority of Canadian citizens want to see end. Your gift today can help put the last nail in the coffin for the Canadian seal industry. Thank you for standing up for seals. Time truly is of the essence. Your donation right now will go to work immediately to support PETA's efforts to end horrific animal abuse, such as the massacre of thousands of young seals, which will begin soon

A female grey seal moves over thin ice near the shore in Canso, N.S. on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2005. (Andrew Vaughan / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

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The Canadian Press Published Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 8:16AM EST SYDNEY, N.S. -- An anti-sealing organization says the cancellation of the annual hunt on Hay Island off Cape Breton is another sign the commercial industry is dying.Bridget Curran, director of the Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition, says international markets for seal products are shrinking.Curran says she's delighted by news that a group of seal hunters in Cape Breton have decided against venturing out this year.Robert Courtney, a spokesman for the hunters, says the hunt has been suspended because there is no market for the pelts.It's the second year in a row the hunt for grey seals on Hay Island has been called off.The hunt usually takes in a few hundred seals every spring.

In just a few days, baby harp seals will encounter Canadian sealers who will beat, shoot and skin as many of them as they can while their pelts remain soft enough to sell on the international fur market. Just like human mothers, mother harp seals feel a deep sense of responsibility towards their newborn pups, but they can only watch as the sealers' spiked clubs slam into their babies' heads and their skins are ripped off their bodies, sometimes while they are still alive . We can't let this happen again. Please sign PETA's petition to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper demanding a permanent end to the annual slaughter of seals. And please donate to PETA right now so that we can continue our fight for seals and all other animals who need us. Thanks to compassionate people like you, PETA and our international affiliates are close to stopping this senseless massacre. A majority of Canadians say that they're against the annual slaughter. And the international outcry against the horrifying massacre is growing. PETA and our international affiliates have already helped shut down an estimated 95 per cent of the global seal-fur market, and the Canadian government is quickly running out of excuses to let the killing of young seals continue.

We will win the battle to end this massacre. But we can't win without your support. Please, for a better future for mother seals who have yet to witness the horror of watching their newborns be skinned alive – sign our petition and help us protect seals and the rest of the world's animals who face suffering and death by making a generous donation to PETA. When you donate today, you'll help us do the following: Defend the European Union's ban on selling seal fur, which Canada is contesting right now.Mobilise people around the world to put pressure on the Canadian government and Prime Minister Harper to end the slaughter Campaign even harder and louder to generate a global outcry unlike anything the world has seen before. We believe that every seal – every animal – has the right to live free from exploitation for trivial human interests. We will work day and night to protect those rights, no matter how small the animal. Thanks to you and your support, countless animals will be spared cruel treatment. On behalf of all of the world's animals, thank you. The clock is ticking down to an end to the slaughter, but as long as any young seals are threatened for their fur, we must do all that we can to help stop it. Please sign our petition and make a donation right now to help PETA stop the killing and strengthen all our campaigns for animals.

For centuries, pregnant harp seals have migrated from Greenland down the coast of Canada, stopping each spring to give birth on the ice floes off Newfoundland. And every year, the Canadian government funds a trade in which the baby seals are massacred by club-wielding sealers from the local fishing community while their pelts remain soft enough to sell on the international fur market. The commercial seal slaughter is not a subsistence activity for native peoples but an off-season fishing industry cash grab, and it accounts for less than 1 percent of Newfoundland's economy. Over the last few years, all major markets have banned seal-pelt imports, including the US, the European Union, Mexico, Taiwan, and even Russia, which had been importing 95 per cent of Canadian sealskins. Lack of markets has led Canadian officials to seriously examine whether the slaughter should end. Sealing is surely on the way out, but we need your voice now to reach the tipping point. The annual seal slaughter will continue unless people like you speak out and take action to stop it. Please write to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and demand that he bring the massacre to an immediate end.

I was truly shocked to learn that the Canadian government is still allowing thousands of seals to be slaughtered each year. The US, the European Union, Taiwan, Mexico and Russia have now all banned seal-fur imports, recognising that clubbing baby seals to death is barbaric and inhumane.Every year, thousands of these gentle animals are shot or have their skulls smashed in by sealers before being skinned, sometimes while still alive. Please end this cruel slaughter immediately and spare Canada any further embarrassment.

Do You Have 60 Seconds to Save Seals?Posted by Jessica Getty (cause leader)

Tell your friends about thisSHARE THE PHOTOSo you already know that the annual Canadian seal slaughter is the largest marine-mammal massacre in the world, with the Canadian government sanctioning the murder of hundreds of baby seals every year for the bloody fur trade.

Check out this infographic exploring the Canadian seal slaughter and tweet it, e-mail it to your friends, or post it to your Facebook page! With your help, millions of people will instantly see the truth behind Canada's shameful excuses for failing to put a stop to this travesty